Another badminton World Championship, another bronze medal for India.
India's home BWF Worlds campaign came to an end with one medal - Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly winning the bronze in women's doubles to extend India's streak of winning at least one medal at every edition stretching back to 2011. This streak is an important marker of India's consistency in a core sport and would have ended if not for a fairytale run from the two 23-year-olds, beating a higher-ranked pair from China and Japan after their injury-marred season, and it answered the many questions raised about them recently.
While Gayatri and Treesa's feat was admirable, this bronze is a bit of a band-aid for Indian badminton, like the one Satwik-Chirag won last year, patching over what is a frankly patchy performance at home.
One bronze from 10 entries is not the best of results, especially given the good starts and great crowd support players had. The last time India won two medals, or one that was not a bronze, is back in the pandemic-affected 2021 edition, where Kidambi Srikanth had silver and Lakshya Sen the bronze. In the five years since, there has been only one singles medal and three in doubles.
The narrow misses of PV Sindhu, the shock loss for Lakshya Sen and Satwik-Chirag's capitulation will be therefore be a sore spot in this campaign. At the same time, there were moments memorable from the week gone by even if they didn't finish on a high. Ayush Shetty knocking out the World No 1 Shi Yu Qi in the first round, a match that should go down in Indian badminton lore. Or Unnati Hooda missing two match points against a seeded player, showing just how good she can be at only 18.
In the grand scheme of things though, this will be a missed opportunity. While Delhi put on an event to remember, the home players could not make the most it. While expectations centred around multiple medals, only two Indians even reached the medal matches - Gayatri-Treesa and Satwik-Chirag.
�� A bronze medal to save the streak
⛔ Disappointment en route Asian Games
�� An excellent home crowd@ZENIADCUNHA takes us through the biggest highlights from the 2026 BWF World Championships in New Delhi ������ pic.twitter.com/neWv8HS7NU- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) August 23, 2026
The woman's doubles medal had all the makings of a classic sporting story - a comeback after an injury setback, being the underdog, facing scrutiny and spotlight that sometimes went beyond sport. How they overcame the heartbreak, a ligament tear and negativity is a feat that should not go under the radar. This bronze medal is something to be celebrated, especially as women's doubles has not much success in India since the first medal back in 2011.
The men's doubles match, though, was an aberration with an extremely lopsided loss to a pair that would go on to become the world champions. But just this once, perhaps this can be considered an exception and let go without much criticism.
It is no secret that Satwik has been managing a shoulder injury and is therefore underpowered. The Satwik smash is a vital weapon for this pair and to go into a major tournament without one of their best strokes missing was always going to be a challenge. Additionally, the rest required for it meant they were a bit rusty, compounded by the first-round bye and walkover which meant there were a bit undercooked as well.
The singles though is a different story. The absence of a single medal in the last two editions continues to be a worrying sign. Indeed, the singles campaign ended at the quarter-final stage.
The biggest upset from an Indian perspective will be India No 1 Lakshya losing to an 18-year-old Garret Tan, the World No 92 from USA. It was a result that no one saw coming (and this includes the people who did predict Ayush could upset the defending champion). It was also a result that should spark a severe rethink in his camp on how to rebuild his confidence. Again.
Ayush too will have some thinking to do after his loss to fellow class of 2023 player Alwi Farhan, where he was tactically outdone. He had no Plan B when denied height and this is an area to work on for long-term for the 6'4" player in a men's singles era is this increasingly getting harder and more competitive with any one in the Top 20 capable of winning big.
In women's singles, Sindhu and Unnati, on opposite ends of their career spectrum, lost thrillers against players ranked higher. And in both cases, the culprit was the mind as much as the game. Both lost patience and made avoidable errors as the finish line neared and will be left ruing their chances. Except Sindhu is 31 and has to relearn some aspects, while the 18-year-old Unnati is still on her first learning curve.
The other results in mixed doubles, as well as the second women's and men's doubles pairs had results that were just about what was expected. The one-sided nature of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto's loss could have surely been better, but as national coach Pullela Gopichand said, even questioning the progress of the mixed doubles discipline is an improvement over what it used to be.
Overall the most striking feature of this World Championship was the unpredictability, from the first day when the men's singles top seed was knocked out in the first round, to the last when France won their first ever, and then second gold in the span of a few hours. The story of the Worlds will be the mixed doubles pair Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue and Alex Lanier in men's singles becoming world champions, while traditional heavyweights like China and Indonesia struggled. A French mixed doubles champion, no Chinese man in the men's singles podium which represented three continents is a rare sight.
Whether it was the conditions of the big hall in Delhi, which were said to be slower and had challenging drift or whether it is the fact that badminton is becoming more global, the diversity on the podium was unique.
(Perhaps the only predictable outcome the entire week was An Se Young becoming the world champion again, despite not being hundred percent fit.)
At the end of the day (or week), a bronze saved India some blushes, but there is much much to work on before the next big challenge - the Asian Games in September - which will have both team and individual medals.
India did exceedingly well at the last edition in 2023 but may not be able to match that if these results are anything to go by. In fact, it is not just India but other countries too that will be looking at the Asian Games as a shot at redemption after this week's result... or are already planning to peak towards it.
The final word is reserved not for performances and expectations, for the badminton fans that turned up in large numbers and flying colours in Delhi. Credit where it's due, India showed for the badminton this time with fans travelling from various parts - like Mumbai and Coonoor, to experience the biggest badminton tournament. A carnival like atmosphere for Indians, full stands even when no Indian was playing in the final, posters and chants for global stars and no untoward animal related incidents, all made it a memorable week for those who were there.